SP: English Study Group

source:http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/business/2014/01/13/398243/Housing-prices.htm

TAIPEI -- Taiwan's high housing prices could finally give way this year, allowing more room for buyers of non-luxury homes to haggle, two real estate experts predicted Saturday.

He said that housing prices could drop by more than 10 percent this year and continue the downward trend for the next 3-5 years.Interest rates will likely rise significantly in the second half of this year and the first half of next year now that the U.S. Federal Reserve has begun scaling back its bond-buying program, putting downward pressure on housing prices, forecast Hua Ching-chun, an associate professor of real estate management and investment at Takming University of Science and Technology.

The expected drop combined with already high prices countrywide mean that now is not a good time to buy homes, he advised.

Shrinking transaction volume and high prices in Taipei have caused housing market speculation to shift toward central and southern Taiwan, he noted.

As a result, those areas will feel downward pressure several months later than the greater Taipei region, he said.

Chuang Meng-han, a professor of industrial economics at Tamkang University, said that the property market this year is already seeing dwindling transactions, fewer houses sold at their ballooned prices, more opportunities for buyers to haggle, and mounting downward pressure.

He said that the housing market this year will be divided into the luxury housing and ordinary housing segments.

Prices for ordinary homes, particularly in areas with excess supplies of housing, will drop gradually, but prices could buck the trend to hit record highs due to their relative rarity.

Questions:

1. Where and what location do you like to live in Taiwan? Does it depend on your work, spouse, housing price, traffic?

2. When decorating your own house, what consideration do you take in your mind (room size, kitchen size, bathroom style, floor style, furnitures)?